Wireless communication devices often need to be provided with service data in order to connect to a wireless communication network, such as a wireless voice and/or data network, and to use the wireless services available on such networks. The process by which a service relationship is established between a wireless communication device and a data server may be referred to as “activation” in the sense that establishing a service relationship between the wireless communication device and the server may activate wireless services provided by the server for the wireless communication device. This process may sometimes be referred to as “provisioning”; however, this usage of the term is unrelated to the “provisioning” process which typically occurs at the wireless carrier level.
Activation of a wireless communication device for operation with a server is typically required for a device (e.g., a new device) which does not have an existing service relationship with the server, and may be required in other circumstances such as during device switch operations in which the device associated with a wireless network subscription is switched (for example, when a SIM card is swapped between wireless communication devices) or when the service data affecting the wireless communication devices or the wireless data server changes. It may be desirable for activation of the device on the server to take place over a secure communication channel, for example to prevent unauthorized users from activating a device on the server (e.g., in a denial of service attack).
It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.